Hill County sees rough fire week

After a few days of light precipitation in the region, which mostly missed the local area, Hill County was hit harder than many of its neighbors by fires, losing 300 acres in the last week.

During a regional fire call Tuesday morning Hill County reported three fires totaling more than 300 lost acres, having fared the worst of all the counties on the call.

Roosevelt, Sheridan, Phillips, Blaine, Fergus, Golden Valley and Petroleum counties all reported no fire activities, though most of them saw some precipitation over the last few days, which Hill County has seen little of.

Daniels County saw two fires but they burned less than an acre and were put out by farmers before fire fighters had to intervene.

Neither Fort Belknap Indian Community and Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation saw any fires this week either.

None of the counties on the call elected to change their fire restrictions, with Hill County and Rocky Boy sticking with Stage 1 fire restrictions.

These restrictions prohibit building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire or campfire unless noted in the exemptions below or as designated in the specific closure order.

Smoking is allowed within enclosed vehicles or buildings, developed recreation sites or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable materials.

Exemptions to these restrictions include people with a written permit that specifically authorizes the otherwise prohibited act, and people using a device solely fueled by liquid petroleum or LPG fuels that can be turned on and off.

Such devices can only be used in an area that is barren or cleared of all overhead and surrounding flammable materials within three feet of the device.

People conducting activities in those designated areas where the activity is specifically authorized by written posted notice are also exempt, as are federal, state, or local officers or members of an organized rescue or firefighting force in the performance of an official duty.

During the Tuesday call, National Weather Service Glasgow reported that the fog and clouds from the precipitation that much of the region saw will have burned off by the end of day but temperatures should be about average for the remainder of the week.

Humidity levels actually look pretty good, they said, and should make it harder for fires to start up.

Thursday should be the driest day, they reported, but even that shouldn’t be too bad, and the wind is expected to stay below 10 to 15 miles per hour with gusts below 20 miles per hour, which is fairly manageable.

They said the region is currently between a low pressure system above British Columbia and a high pressure system over the High Plains, meaning some areas will likely see isolated evening thunderstorms.

Overall, fire weather threat looks fairly low in the coming week, the service reported, however, they are continuing to urge people, especially agriculture producers, to be careful with their equipment and prevent sparks as much as possible as harvest continues.